TENC: Autumn-fabric dress
Oct. 18th, 2012 06:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzFor your reading delight, here's another dress diary for you all! Remember, any picture can be clicked to enlarge!
Ever since busy prints combined with solids became fashion, I was a fan. I especially liked the dresses and tunics which emphasized the waistline, and pinned two designs by Burda on Pinterest to remind me to make these:
Since I can't get away wearing high waistlines without looking at least three months pregnant, I devised my own version of this pattern with the help of my teacher Helen and we made a dress in a purple knit fabric that I worked on for several months. But I had other fabrics in my cupboard that would suit this style very well, and I had bought them some two years ago. When I finally finished the purple dress in school, I resolved to make a slightly different one at home from this autumn fabric I once bought at Schröder in Rotterdam.
While the purple dress from school had a small kimono-like sleeve that reached to my biceps, I traced the pattern again and added a three-quarter sleeve with another contrast as a cuff. Small alterations that do not warrant their own picture in this blog.
I had plenty fabric (three meters, if memory serves) to cut out my pattern pieces with some premeditation. One of the eyecatchers in the fabric is a large white Dipladenia flower you really don't want placed anywhere near the nipple area, but might do well in other areas, like the top of the sleevehead, near the biceps.
I use a pin to determine roughly the center of the flower before folding the fabric for the center-back piece, or place my sleeve over it just so it will sit right in the right spot. It means a little extra work, since you can't cut both sleeves in one go, but this kind of extra effort really shows to those who will look for it that you pay attention to detail!
I mark the darts in the front panels and on the sleeves with a ruler and some chalk, insofar the knit fabric allows it, and sew them with a ballpoint needle and a small zig-zag on my sewing machine.
While this project uses the serger for a lot of the work, especially the long vertical lines, this kind of sewing I really don't want anywhere near my serger and its knives that cut the excess fabric off.
Next up is the front contrast. This is always tricky, with the square-like corners. I first sew the bottom bit down, extending one seam allowance to either side. Then I clip right up to the stitches, so I can turn the corner. The sides are then pinned and sewn, making sure that there are no unsightly bulges at the corner but that the fabric lies flat thanks to the clipping.
The first corner looks good and I can exhale happily...
And the second one looks just as neat!
(Also: note the two leaves just below the contrast right on center-front? Red is so much more my colour than white, and I thought these would look lovely right there, instead of slightly offset to one side or the other. And no unsightly big white flowers right on the ladies either!)
The waistline contrast is sewn in place by the serger and the front skirt panel is attached as well.
I am using exactly the same technique as we did in school: all the contrast pieces are reinforced with interfacing so that they can't stretch any more. This means the neckline will always be neat and never gape. It also means the waist doesn't stretch... and I'll need a zipper to get into the dress. More on that later!
Now that the front half is done, I can pick the next pile of pattern pieces to work on! Let's do the back panel...
Knit fabrics are all bastards.
The fabric shifts as I sew the back neck contrast down and I have to call on Mr. Seamripper, my dear friend who has been instrumental to the success of many a project!
A little pressing to keep all the seam allowances pointing the right way...
And then the back panel is done too. The invisible zipper is ready between them, but I first focus on the sleeves. I might as well, they need doing at some point or other anyway!
I set the sewing machine to my favorite zig-zag stitch for the sleeve darts and find out that I need a thread replacement. (This happens to me a lot.)
I also realise I've cut the sleeves with a hem allowance, while there is going to be a contrast cuff. I cut down the 3 cm hem to a 1 cm seam allowance, and carry on.
But isn't long before the next problem arises. The sleeve is far too wide to look good. I forgot to check my measurements against the standard sleeve pattern and fit the sleeve.
I could fit the entire sleeve on my arm, but there's no way to tell if it's also too large in the armscye, and refitting the entire top just because my arsmcye is too low sounds like a lot of trouble I really don't want to go through! I decide to only resize the cuff and leave the sleeve as it is. It won't gape unsightly and it'll have a blouse-like feel to it.
I finish the (resized) cuff before I attach it to the sleeve. The facing is basted down, because I don't want any knit fabric folding or rolling over as I pull everything through the serger.
I divide the excess fabric between pin markers and sew the cuff to the sleeve.
I think it looks a lot better already.
It's zipper time! I use a teeny tiny bit of interfacing to reinforce the fabric where the zipper will be and then pin the zip to the (curved) side seam with right sides together.
After zig-zagging the edge of the zipper to the fabric so it doesn't go anywhere (basting and then zig-zagging is even better, but I'm a daredevil!) I use my much-beloved blind zipper foot to stitch in the fold of the zip, right next to the teeth.
Special feet for the sewing machine are never cheap, but this one was worth the € 14,- I paid for it a thousand times over! It makes your work so much easier and cuss-free to boot!
After the first half is done, I repeat all steps including all foot-switches for the machine on the other half and once that is done I am very content with the outcome. Zipper is indeed nearly invisible and all my contrasts line up!
This means it's time to sew the side seam. I try my best to match all the edges as well as I can, but with a knit fabric you can really easily hide up to a centimeter (but be careful of unsightly puckers!)
I don't want my serger anywhere near that zipper, but I do want a side seam that can take a little stretching. Right next to the zipper stitching, I use a very slight zig-zag, and after a few centimeters of that, I can wedge the bundle of joy under the serger and finish the rest, making sure the zip is nowhere near the serger's needle, foot or knives.
I like how the finished seam looks! Time for finishing off the rest.
The sleeves are already sewn and I can set them with the serger easily enough. Even though the knit folds over at the sleevecap and I have to redo part of my seam, it is finished soon enough. The end is in sight and I quickly continue with the facing around the neckline.
I clip the V at the center-front bottom so the facing will turn smoothly and clip the back neck seam allowance as well. Then I flip everything open and sew the facing down to the seam-allowance of the facing and front contrast, so the facing can't peek out. I learned how to do this in school, at home I always topstitched everything! It's a little tricky at the V, but if you start and finish there, you won't have to bother about turning that tricky little corner!
After pinning everything down flat to the shape I want it to be when I'm wearing it, I baste down the ditch so it can't move and sew the facing down on the inside to the seam allowance of the contrast and front panel, without sewing the front panel itself. You can't sew over the shoulder seam, so you'll have to tie off and restart on the other side of it, just like on the bottom of the V. It requires some 3D thinking, but it is the most invisible way of stitching down a facing I've ever heard of!
I pin, baste, press the hem before even attempting to run it through the serger. Because the raw edge is on the bottom when you sew it, it's always a surprise how neat it will turn out. I am very happy how it looks, yay!
I reward my hard work with a white chocotoff while I hand-sew my own label down.
Finished and definitely approved!
I still love this fabric, and I found out just before I started this project that I had also picked up a remnant coupon in a different colour setting a good few months after initially buying this fabric. I made a shirt out of the remnant back then, and now I've finally finished the dress I intended to make so long ago.
What I'd do differently next time:
Because the initial pattern was with a very short kimono sleeve, I never got to check the armscye depth and indeed, it is too low. This means that combined with the slightly on the wide side sleeves, the top isn't as skin-tight as it could be. The dress itself was drafted with only minimal ease (fitted waistline, 4 cm ease on the hip width) instead of negative ease as you often see with store-bought knit fabric dresses. The general opinion is that if it's a knit fabric, it should be worn skin-tight.
Although this is a point of discussion, I still love the shape of the dress. It's tight enough in the waist to define the shape, the hem is level (I have to account for a large backside in my pattern drafts!) and there's plenty of moving room in the top. The large armscyes and sleeves don't look wrong, but they could be tighter.
All in all, I am very pleased with the result!
Cross-posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
dressdiaries.
Ever since busy prints combined with solids became fashion, I was a fan. I especially liked the dresses and tunics which emphasized the waistline, and pinned two designs by Burda on Pinterest to remind me to make these:
|  Source: burdastyle.com |
Since I can't get away wearing high waistlines without looking at least three months pregnant, I devised my own version of this pattern with the help of my teacher Helen and we made a dress in a purple knit fabric that I worked on for several months. But I had other fabrics in my cupboard that would suit this style very well, and I had bought them some two years ago. When I finally finished the purple dress in school, I resolved to make a slightly different one at home from this autumn fabric I once bought at Schröder in Rotterdam.
While the purple dress from school had a small kimono-like sleeve that reached to my biceps, I traced the pattern again and added a three-quarter sleeve with another contrast as a cuff. Small alterations that do not warrant their own picture in this blog.
I had plenty fabric (three meters, if memory serves) to cut out my pattern pieces with some premeditation. One of the eyecatchers in the fabric is a large white Dipladenia flower you really don't want placed anywhere near the nipple area, but might do well in other areas, like the top of the sleevehead, near the biceps.
I use a pin to determine roughly the center of the flower before folding the fabric for the center-back piece, or place my sleeve over it just so it will sit right in the right spot. It means a little extra work, since you can't cut both sleeves in one go, but this kind of extra effort really shows to those who will look for it that you pay attention to detail!
I mark the darts in the front panels and on the sleeves with a ruler and some chalk, insofar the knit fabric allows it, and sew them with a ballpoint needle and a small zig-zag on my sewing machine.
While this project uses the serger for a lot of the work, especially the long vertical lines, this kind of sewing I really don't want anywhere near my serger and its knives that cut the excess fabric off.
Next up is the front contrast. This is always tricky, with the square-like corners. I first sew the bottom bit down, extending one seam allowance to either side. Then I clip right up to the stitches, so I can turn the corner. The sides are then pinned and sewn, making sure that there are no unsightly bulges at the corner but that the fabric lies flat thanks to the clipping.
The first corner looks good and I can exhale happily...
And the second one looks just as neat!
(Also: note the two leaves just below the contrast right on center-front? Red is so much more my colour than white, and I thought these would look lovely right there, instead of slightly offset to one side or the other. And no unsightly big white flowers right on the ladies either!)
The waistline contrast is sewn in place by the serger and the front skirt panel is attached as well.
I am using exactly the same technique as we did in school: all the contrast pieces are reinforced with interfacing so that they can't stretch any more. This means the neckline will always be neat and never gape. It also means the waist doesn't stretch... and I'll need a zipper to get into the dress. More on that later!
Now that the front half is done, I can pick the next pile of pattern pieces to work on! Let's do the back panel...
Knit fabrics are all bastards.
The fabric shifts as I sew the back neck contrast down and I have to call on Mr. Seamripper, my dear friend who has been instrumental to the success of many a project!
A little pressing to keep all the seam allowances pointing the right way...
And then the back panel is done too. The invisible zipper is ready between them, but I first focus on the sleeves. I might as well, they need doing at some point or other anyway!
I set the sewing machine to my favorite zig-zag stitch for the sleeve darts and find out that I need a thread replacement. (This happens to me a lot.)
I also realise I've cut the sleeves with a hem allowance, while there is going to be a contrast cuff. I cut down the 3 cm hem to a 1 cm seam allowance, and carry on.
But isn't long before the next problem arises. The sleeve is far too wide to look good. I forgot to check my measurements against the standard sleeve pattern and fit the sleeve.
I could fit the entire sleeve on my arm, but there's no way to tell if it's also too large in the armscye, and refitting the entire top just because my arsmcye is too low sounds like a lot of trouble I really don't want to go through! I decide to only resize the cuff and leave the sleeve as it is. It won't gape unsightly and it'll have a blouse-like feel to it.
I finish the (resized) cuff before I attach it to the sleeve. The facing is basted down, because I don't want any knit fabric folding or rolling over as I pull everything through the serger.
I divide the excess fabric between pin markers and sew the cuff to the sleeve.
I think it looks a lot better already.
It's zipper time! I use a teeny tiny bit of interfacing to reinforce the fabric where the zipper will be and then pin the zip to the (curved) side seam with right sides together.
After zig-zagging the edge of the zipper to the fabric so it doesn't go anywhere (basting and then zig-zagging is even better, but I'm a daredevil!) I use my much-beloved blind zipper foot to stitch in the fold of the zip, right next to the teeth.
Special feet for the sewing machine are never cheap, but this one was worth the € 14,- I paid for it a thousand times over! It makes your work so much easier and cuss-free to boot!
After the first half is done, I repeat all steps including all foot-switches for the machine on the other half and once that is done I am very content with the outcome. Zipper is indeed nearly invisible and all my contrasts line up!
This means it's time to sew the side seam. I try my best to match all the edges as well as I can, but with a knit fabric you can really easily hide up to a centimeter (but be careful of unsightly puckers!)
I don't want my serger anywhere near that zipper, but I do want a side seam that can take a little stretching. Right next to the zipper stitching, I use a very slight zig-zag, and after a few centimeters of that, I can wedge the bundle of joy under the serger and finish the rest, making sure the zip is nowhere near the serger's needle, foot or knives.
I like how the finished seam looks! Time for finishing off the rest.
The sleeves are already sewn and I can set them with the serger easily enough. Even though the knit folds over at the sleevecap and I have to redo part of my seam, it is finished soon enough. The end is in sight and I quickly continue with the facing around the neckline.
I clip the V at the center-front bottom so the facing will turn smoothly and clip the back neck seam allowance as well. Then I flip everything open and sew the facing down to the seam-allowance of the facing and front contrast, so the facing can't peek out. I learned how to do this in school, at home I always topstitched everything! It's a little tricky at the V, but if you start and finish there, you won't have to bother about turning that tricky little corner!
After pinning everything down flat to the shape I want it to be when I'm wearing it, I baste down the ditch so it can't move and sew the facing down on the inside to the seam allowance of the contrast and front panel, without sewing the front panel itself. You can't sew over the shoulder seam, so you'll have to tie off and restart on the other side of it, just like on the bottom of the V. It requires some 3D thinking, but it is the most invisible way of stitching down a facing I've ever heard of!
I pin, baste, press the hem before even attempting to run it through the serger. Because the raw edge is on the bottom when you sew it, it's always a surprise how neat it will turn out. I am very happy how it looks, yay!
I reward my hard work with a white chocotoff while I hand-sew my own label down.
Finished and definitely approved!
I still love this fabric, and I found out just before I started this project that I had also picked up a remnant coupon in a different colour setting a good few months after initially buying this fabric. I made a shirt out of the remnant back then, and now I've finally finished the dress I intended to make so long ago.
What I'd do differently next time:
Because the initial pattern was with a very short kimono sleeve, I never got to check the armscye depth and indeed, it is too low. This means that combined with the slightly on the wide side sleeves, the top isn't as skin-tight as it could be. The dress itself was drafted with only minimal ease (fitted waistline, 4 cm ease on the hip width) instead of negative ease as you often see with store-bought knit fabric dresses. The general opinion is that if it's a knit fabric, it should be worn skin-tight.
Although this is a point of discussion, I still love the shape of the dress. It's tight enough in the waist to define the shape, the hem is level (I have to account for a large backside in my pattern drafts!) and there's plenty of moving room in the top. The large armscyes and sleeves don't look wrong, but they could be tighter.
All in all, I am very pleased with the result!
Cross-posted to
dressdiaries.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-10-18 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-18 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-18 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-18 07:41 pm (UTC)Ik surf regelmatig langs jouw blog, maar je hebt helaas al een tijdje niet geüpdate!
no subject
Date: 2012-10-18 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-18 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-18 06:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-18 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-18 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-18 08:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-19 07:59 am (UTC)Het jurkje ook btw ;-)
Bob
no subject
Date: 2012-10-19 04:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-19 09:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-19 09:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-19 02:57 pm (UTC)Although I do think you could very well have gotten away with it if you'd placed the contrast piece in the middle a little higher!
no subject
Date: 2012-10-19 04:01 pm (UTC)Who knows in a few months I might have worked it all off, if I continue to have a walking job in stead of a 'sitting on my bum' job.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-19 03:35 pm (UTC)En het model is super!
Muze begint al te porren; "morgen ben je toch in de stad, je bent vlak bij de markt. Je weet nooit!"
"Shut up!"
no subject
Date: 2012-10-19 04:06 pm (UTC)En ja, het stofje is inderdaad helemaal geweldig. Het meest frappante is nog dat ik een coupon in een andere kleurstelling kocht nadat ik deze drie meter gekocht had en hem toen ook mooi vond! (bruin met groen (http://janestarz.livejournal.com/1024134.html)!)
no subject
Date: 2012-10-21 07:47 pm (UTC)Mooi stofje en een geweldig mooie jurk. Dat heb je keurig gedaan en het staat je geweldig.
help me onthouden, ik heb nog iets voor erbij....:-)
Mega kus.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-21 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-22 09:51 am (UTC)